MJF Images Fine Art landscape, nature and travel images from the American West and around the world.

Archive for the ‘moonlight’ Tag

This has been quite the skinny year for skiing in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon & Washington. I took the opportunity yesterday to go with a couple photographer friends up to Potato Hill up in the mountains (don’t ask me why it’s called that). I was on my XC skis and they snowshoed. The summit area has a wonderful view of several rugged high peaks of the Central Oregon Cascades.

Down at the highway, the snow had melted much too early for this time of year, and there were bare patches. But once we climbed most of the 1500 feet to the viewpoint, the snow was in great condition – smooth and spring-like. I really enjoyed being back on my skis.

Though we had a colorful sunset and a misty moonrise, I think I like this shot from later in the evening, just before we left. The moon had just crested the hill and was shining beautifully on the pristine snow. Skiing down fast in the moonlight was a lot of fun. Hope your weekend has been just as fun!

Instead of Single-Image Sunday this week I’ve decided to be a joiner for once. I’m not generally a joiner, but I like the theme Masterpiece. Also, I felt the need to view other people’s photography. It’s like eating meat. I don’t do it a lot, but occasionally I feel the need. So I’m participating this week on the Postaday’s Weekly Photo Challenge. Hope you enjoy the image. Just click on it if you’re interested in purchase options. It’s copyrighted and not available for free download, sorry. If you have any questions, just contact me. Thanks for looking!

A full moon lights this view from the North Rim westward down the length of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

This image, which I think I posted as part of a Grand Canyon theme some months ago, is one of my favorites. It speaks to me of the unity between the earth and the cosmos. I think of everything we can see in day and night, the earth and space, the whole shebang, as one enormous masterpiece. This is the winter night sky, so it’s not like so many shots you see (including mine), where the Milky Way arcs across the sky. Instead we’re looking outward toward inter-galactic space. For me it makes the image even better. You can also notice some left-over smoke from fires, drifting in low layers over the Canyon.

I almost didn’t capture it. My foot was injured and I didn’t want to make the 1/2 mile hike in the darkness down to this viewpoint. But the moon rose, nearly full, so I went ahead and limped down there. When I arrived I didn’t see this composition. I hopped the fence and carefully worked my way to the edge. Looking down into the black void was freaking me out, so I concentrated on the stars and the distant canyon. I used a very wide angle, 15 mm.

The image is a combination of two images taken one after the other. The first one was for the land, with a static camera, and the second was for the stars, tracking their apparent movement across the sky so they wouldn’t blur. I have a tracking mount for my tripod. I combined the two images in Photoshop to come up with an image very similar to what I saw that night. This isn’t easy, matching your memory of the view with your final image. It’s especially difficult with long-exposure night shots. Hope you enjoy it.

Getting good shots of the crescent moon is a bit different than shooting the moon at any other time. In this Friday Foto Talk we’ll discuss some of the considerations during capture, as well as the way I process the images. The crescent is certainly a worthwhile subject. Especially when the moon is very new and a thin crescent is illuminated, it can be a very delicate and beautiful feature of the evening or early morning sky.

Moon Phase & When to Shoot

First off, when can it be shot? Well, assuming your goal is to capture it when it is very thin, you will be shooting just after sunset or just before sunrise. This makes sense if you think about why only a thin crescent is illuminated. To get a good idea of this concept, go get an orange, tennis ball, or any round object you can hold in your hand. Hold it up between you and a bright light bulb (without a lampshade). Move toward the light so that when you hold the ball at arm’s length it just covers the light bulb when you close one eye. Move your arm so it’s held out to the side, forming a right angle between yourself and the light. Look at the ball. It’s half-lighted. This is a half-full, a first or last quarter moon. Now swing your arm slowly toward the light and concentrate on the lighted part of the ball. It should approximate a crescent shape that gets smaller and smaller until it is a small crescent before it completely covers the light (representing a new moon).

Now you have an idea of the position of the crescent moon relative to the earth (your eyes) and the sun (the light). When the ball/moon is moving toward the light/sun it is a waning crescent, visible in early morning just before sunrise. When it is moving away from the sun it is a waxing crescent, visible in the evening just after sunset. In either case the moon will be near the horizon, and so it represents a good opportunity to make an image with a pretty landscape beneath the moon. You will also have the opportunity to shoot it at so-called blue hour (the time when the sun is below the horizon but the sky has enough light to give it a deep blue color). You will also not have as much contrast between the bright moon and the dimmer sky or landscape as you do when more of the moon is illuminated.

All of this is good news. It makes your life easier as a photographer, specifically in terms of contrast, but also easier to get a more interesting composition. If the moon is only a day or so old, for example, you will be shooting it at dusk during the waning stages of the sunset. In this case the moon will be close to the horizon, which is good so long as you don’t have a huge mountain or building in the way. Also there will be little contrast between the moon and the sky (a good thing). On the other hand, the ultra-thin crescent is often very difficult to even see at this young stage. If it is 2-3 days old, it will be easier to see, and you’ll see it in blue hour. But if you wait for it to get close to the horizon, it will be very deep blue hour, which means more contrast between moon and sky/landscape

When & How to Capture the Crescent

(Note: This discussion refers to the image at top. The other images are just thrown in as a bonus)

Last night I shot the crescent moon at just under 2 days old. Since I wanted it close to the horizon, it was the very end of blue hour. So there was some contrast to deal with. As with shooting the full moon, it helps to have a fairly bright or reflective landscape in front of the moon. Deserts are good, but water is just as nice. I had been shooting the sunset over the Gorge at popular Crown Point, and on the way home I drove right by the Columbia River. I found a favorite spot of mine to shoot near the river, and quickly set up. There was not much time.

Since I do not like to use high ISO when I am shooting low-light images like this, I let my exposure go up toward 30 seconds. This was also necessary because of the fact I had foreground elements not far away, in the form of some pilings sticking up out of the river. This made it necessary to use an aperture that gives good depth of field (i.e. f/11). Even if I had raised ISO and dropped my aperture to f/5.6 or so, the darkness of the scene would have given me exposures on the order of at least 5 or 6 seconds.

A beautiful summer evening in Portland, Oregon features the crescent moon.

And therein lies the challenge. If you shoot the moon at a shutter speed of more than about 3 seconds, it will begin to blur. This of course is because of the Earth’s rotation. My shots at 30 seconds, which were perfect for the sky and river foreground, featured a moon that was completely smeared out. Yuck! My solution in this case was to shoot a frame where I zoomed in as much as my lens would allow (200 mm.). I dropped my aperture to the maximum opening (f/4) for my lens. I used Liveview to view the moon close-up while I focused it perfectly. Then I shot it at an exposure of 3.2 seconds at f/4 with an ISO of 400.

When I’m shooting the moon, I always look for compositions that are effective (balanced, attractive, etc.) at longer focal lengths. Of course sometimes the best composition is a wide-angle, but the moon will be small in those cases, very small. Longer focal lengths make the moon bigger. It is really a trade-off. The image I finally decided on (I shot several) had a focal length of 110 mm. and included some nicely illuminated clouds along with the silhouetted pilings.

Now I had two images: one with a sharp, beautiful blue-hour rendering of the river and sky but with a badly smeared-out moon; and a second of the (sharp) crescent moon alone. I knew I would be combining the two images in a composite during post-processing (explained below). By the way, this image (top of post) shows almost unnaturally bright yellowish clouds. They are that way mostly because of the reflection of nearby Portland’s street lights.

In this evening image from Zion National Park, a fat crescent forms a minor supporting element..

Post-Processing

I used Lightroom to make basic adjustments to both of these images. I had to brighten things a bit, which is not ideal, since it increases noise. Better would have been to capture the moon at an earlier stage. The perfect stage for this moon, at least to shoot it at blue hour, occurred when it was just over one day old, which occurred during daylight hours. Photographers on the other side of the world had it perfect! I also did some sharpening and noise reduction in Lightroom. You can also use Adobe Camera Raw, Aperture, GIMP or your camera manufacturer’s RAW processing software.

Then I took both images into Photoshop in order to composite (join) them. In Lightroom right click and choose edit-in>Photoshop

Using the wider shot with the long exposure as the background layer, I copied that layer and then used the clone tool to remove the blurred moon. I remembered its position using the ruler guides in Photoshop.

I then went to the shorter-exposure moon image and used the quick selection tool to select the moon.

I copied this (ctrl/cmd C) and went back to the background image, hitting ctrl/cmd V to paste it on. This gives you two layers, the background and the moon.

Since I had zoomed in on that moon image, it looked too big.* Hitting ctrl/cmd T to change its size and position, I dragged it’s corners to shrink back down to the original size. Finally I dragged the moon to its correct position.

I adjusted this moon layer using Photoshop’s levels and hue/saturation controls (enhance menu) until it matched the background and looked similar to the way I remembered it. I’ve found this step to be almost always necessary. It takes some practice to get the moon to look like it belongs. It will be easier if in Lightroom you adjust white balance identically for both of the images.

Lastly, I went around and checked the image for distracting sensor spots, bright lights and other distractions. I left all of the artificial lights in the small community across the river from where I was standing, but I did remove the lights of a plane.

* Note: Some photographers will leave the moon bigger than its original size, or even use ctrl T to make it bigger. You see these images all over the web, and I think they look FAKE! I recommend keeping the moon at the original size, or very close to it. The human eye knows that a wide-angle scene with a big moon is not natural. If you want a bigger moon, shoot with a longer focal length.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Don’t worry if you are not yet comfortable with Photoshop. I consider myself a novice with it, and the way I do these types of composites is fairly simple. Don’t let it intimidate you. There are undoubtedly other ways (perhaps simpler ways) to accomplish the same thing with Photoshop. If you cannot afford Photoshop, consider Photoshop Elements, which is much much cheaper. Elements will do all of the steps listed above, and do them just as well as the full version of Photoshop. For the initial adjustments, you can use free programs like GIMP instead of Lightroom or Aperture.

A few last thoughts: shooting long exposures after sundown is something I think every photographer will enjoy. Including the moon can only add impact to your pictures. Again, make sure it’s a sharp and natural-looking moon. Click on the images for options to purchase larger high-res. options. They are not available for free download, being copyrighted (these versions are much too small anyway). Thanks for your interest, and thanks for reading!

Lost on a dirt road in central Nevada and the incredibly clear cold air makes it possible to photograph an extremely thin crescent.

The Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada has a history of visitors that goes back thousands of years before Sunday drivers from nearby Vegas.

This is Nevada’s oldest and largest state park, located about an hour’s drive from Sin City. On my way out of southwestern Utah (sad), I turned off Interstate 15 and slept near the entrance to the park. The stars were affected by the bright half-moon but were nonetheless amazing. So I did a couple starscapes (see below). In the morning the sun rose into a clear sky and light became harsh within a half hour. I captured the photo above about 15 minutes after sunrise.

The fall-blooming desert chicory adds color to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

I had stopped at a small picnic area called Lone Rock, which is at the turnoff for “the cabins”. There was nobody around, it being early on Black Friday, so the rock was indeed lonely. But I was joined in spirit by those moccasin-clad travelers of a different age. It was a big surprise to find these petroglyphs on a rock behind the Lone Rock. There are other better-known rock art panels throughout this park, like Atlatl Rock on the Petroglyph Canyon Trail. Park at Mouse’s Tank. They date from as old as Fremont Basketmaker people, about 3000 years ago, but there is also art from as recent as several hundred years ago.

I stopped at a little pull-off with a sign explaining some geology – pretty basic stuff, of course, but interesting. I wanted to do a hike into the maze of shallow canyons and slickrock that you view when you stop at Rainbow Vista. It was still early, with nobody around. There is a military firing range not too far away, and the boom-boom of the big guns echoed off the rocks. This is one drawback to a visit here, but quiet does return when they stop.

It was during one of these quiet periods that I heard what sounded like somebody knocking rocks together. I looked around and finally saw some movement in the distance. There was a small herd of sheep some 1/2 mile away, and they were running around, making the noise. I thought I was hearing their hooves knocking on the rocks, but I noticed as I drew closer to them that the rams were butting heads.

A desert bighorn ram at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada watches for danger as the herd he is part of gets down to the business of mating season.

I stalked closer, using the terrain to conceal myself. I cursed the fact that my 100-400 lens had been stolen. In fact, I had only brought my little Canon S95 point and shoot camera with me on the hike, as I thought I would only be shooting pictures of the odd flower or cactus. Dumb! I got my first good view of them, but they had seen me first. Some of the rams had enormous full-curl horns.

Several large rams make up the most obvious part of a November mating herd of desert bighorn sheep in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

It was very clearly mating season, and so the extent of their interest in me varied enormously between the sexes. The females kept leading the herd away from me (there were a couple young ones). Meanwhile the males only glanced my way from time to time. I stalked them for quite some time, even crawling on my belly along washes to get close enough. I was hoping the photos taken with my p & s camera would show more than specks for animals.

Seldom noted during the discussion of the battles between bighorn rams is the point of it all.

Not surprisingly, the pictures did not turn out that well. I am sitting here right now in Vegas thinking about a return. I wonder if I could find the herd. When I finished my bighorn hike and got back to the road, I noticed that traffic had gone from an occasional car to a stream of them. The horde had arrived from town, having finished their Black Friday morning shopping. It was actually crowded; such a change from the quiet and empty morning hours.

I left and drove through the enormous desert landscape of Lake Mead Recreation Area. The lights of Vegas formed a glowing dome above the horizon as the November dusk quickly took over.

A photo & travel blog with a difference: Instead of strict focus on photo how-to, gear and the like, I'll pass on knowledge about the places and cultures photographed. I believe the more deeply you come to know a place, the better your pictures will be.

My past careers as science teacher and geologist mean that I can't help but teach about the natural history of photogenic places around the world. But photography is not forgotten. You'll also see practical tips about where and how to photograph the destinations. And once a week, Friday Foto Talk gives photography tips and how-to on a selected topic, for novices on up to expert.

What you won't find here is endless discussion about me braving dangerous weather, terrain or wild animals to get the shot. Nor will there be cheerleading gear talk or marketing pitches. I promise to leave that to other blogs, of which there are many.

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